> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.vowen.ai/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Tones & Per-App Profiles

> Automatically change writing style based on which app you're using.

<div style={{ marginTop: "-1.5rem" }}>
  <Info>The free plan includes 1 Tone so you can try this <a href="https://vowen.ai" className="font-semibold underline-offset-2" style={{ color: "#8b5cf6", backgroundColor: "rgba(139, 92, 246, 0.12)", border: "1px solid rgba(139, 92, 246, 0.35)", padding: "2px 8px", borderRadius: "6px", fontSize: "0.85em", textDecoration: "none", whiteSpace: "nowrap" }}>Pro feature</a> before upgrading.</Info>
</div>

<div className="my-6 flex gap-3 rounded-xl border border-violet-500/30 bg-violet-500/10 p-4">
  <div className="shrink-0 pt-0.5 text-violet-500 dark:text-violet-400">
    <svg width="20" height="20" viewBox="0 0 24 24" fill="none" stroke="currentColor" strokeWidth="2" strokeLinecap="round" strokeLinejoin="round">
      <path d="m21 2-2 2m-7.61 7.61a5.5 5.5 0 1 1-7.778 7.778 5.5 5.5 0 0 1 7.777-7.777zm0 0L15.5 7.5m0 0 3 3L22 7l-3-3m-3.5 3.5L19 4" />
    </svg>
  </div>

  <div className="text-sm leading-relaxed text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300">
    <strong className="text-violet-700 dark:text-violet-300">API key required.</strong> Tones with AI Enhancement on need a Language Model connected. Set one up in <a href="/ai-features/ai-setup" className="font-semibold text-violet-600 hover:text-violet-500 dark:text-violet-400">Settings > AI Setup</a>.
  </div>
</div>

Tones let you define different writing styles that automatically activate based on which app has focus. Write formally in email, casually in Slack, and technically in your code editor, without changing any settings.

## How It Works

1. You create a Tone with specific settings (model, enhancement style, custom instructions)
2. You assign one or more apps to that Tone using the **Active in Apps** field
3. When you dictate, Vowen detects the active app and applies the matching Tone
4. If no Tone matches, the global settings are used as fallback

## Creating a Tone

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open Tones Settings">
    Go to **Settings > Tones**.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Create New Tone">
    Click the + button to create a new Tone profile.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Configure Settings">
    Each Tone can configure:

    * **Icon & Name**: pick an icon and label to identify the Tone
    * **Speech model**: which transcription model to use
    * **AI Enhancement**: on/off, with its own **Language Model** (e.g. Anthropic, OpenAI, Groq)
    * **Custom Instructions**: style directives applied when this Tone is active
  </Step>

  <Step title="Assign Apps">
    Under **Active in Apps**, add the applications that should trigger this Tone. When one of them is focused, Vowen activates the Tone automatically.
  </Step>
</Steps>

## Example Setups

### Personal finance email

<div className="flex items-center gap-2" style={{ marginTop: "-0.25rem", marginBottom: "0.5rem" }}>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/mail.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=ce0b81b8b43e63fd274998e4b19ee3af" alt="Mail" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/mail.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/outlook.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=08ac5fd4e02b7303bdf57583e435e81a" alt="Outlook" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/outlook.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/spark.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=44faf7ea9e76fa34a6e98bff80ae1e52" alt="Spark" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/spark.png" />

  <span className="text-sm text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400 ml-1">Mail, Outlook, Spark</span>
</div>

**Instructions:** *"Write in a professional, polite tone for finance and billing correspondence. Use proper greetings and sign-offs. Be specific with amounts, dates, and reference numbers. Keep paragraphs short. Direct but courteous."*

**How it helps:** Turns a stream-of-consciousness ramble about a charge, refund, or account issue into a clean, structured email a bank or merchant can actually act on. No more rewriting drafts before you hit send.

<div className="my-4 flex flex-col md:flex-row gap-3 items-stretch">
  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-zinc-500 mb-2 font-semibold">You speak</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300 leading-relaxed">Hey so I noticed there's this random thirty seven dollar charge on my card from like two days ago that I don't remember making, can you guys look into this and let me know what it is, and if it was a mistake can you reverse it? Thanks</div>
  </div>

  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4 bg-violet-500/5">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-violet-600 dark:text-violet-400 mb-2 font-semibold">It sends</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-800 dark:text-zinc-200 leading-relaxed">Hi,<br /><br />I noticed a \$37 charge on my card from two days ago that I don't recognize. Could you confirm what this charge is for? If it was made in error, I'd like to request a reversal.<br /><br />Thanks,</div>
  </div>
</div>

### Casual Chat

<div className="flex items-center gap-2" style={{ marginTop: "-0.25rem", marginBottom: "0.5rem" }}>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/slack.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=b6ac8dc26d7ce5a4686cda799c6ada52" alt="Slack" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/slack.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/discord.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=e6abc0401262a3bf5cc6642423443f97" alt="Discord" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/discord.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/messages.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=90834a0097e42a2e33dd63bb8be483d2" alt="Messages" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/messages.png" />

  <span className="text-sm text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400 ml-1">Slack, Discord, Messages</span>
</div>

**Instructions:** *"Keep it casual and friendly. Short sentences. No formal greetings or sign-offs. Use lowercase where natural."*

**How it helps:** Strips formality so messages sound like quick DMs, not emails. Long, polite sentences collapse into punchy lines that fit the rhythm of a chat thread.

<div className="my-4 flex flex-col md:flex-row gap-3 items-stretch">
  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-zinc-500 mb-2 font-semibold">You speak</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300 leading-relaxed">Hi team, I just wanted to let everyone know that I have finished the quarterly report and it is now ready for review whenever you have a moment to look at it.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4 bg-violet-500/5">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-violet-600 dark:text-violet-400 mb-2 font-semibold">It posts</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-800 dark:text-zinc-200 leading-relaxed">q report's done, take a look when you can 👀</div>
  </div>
</div>

### Talking to AI coding agents

<div className="flex items-center gap-2" style={{ marginTop: "-0.25rem", marginBottom: "0.5rem" }}>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/cursor.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=e47c5b347f870d27d251e7cdbf8cd2d2" alt="Cursor" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/cursor.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/codex.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=01b735426cf54aa06b781301a3d7c05e" alt="Codex" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/codex.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/ghostty.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=6a3712689d39a489e3366964b4ba7464" alt="Ghostty" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/ghostty.png" />

  <span className="text-sm text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400 ml-1">Cursor, Codex, Ghostty</span>
</div>

**Instructions:** *"Convert natural-language descriptions of UI changes into precise developer language. Use proper CSS, Tailwind, and component terminology. Be specific about properties, units, and behaviors. Keep it terse, agent-style prompts with no greetings or filler."*

**How it helps:** When you describe what you want in plain English, the AI gets a clean technical instruction it can execute without guessing. "Make it look better" becomes a precise list of properties to change.

<div className="my-4 flex flex-col md:flex-row gap-3 items-stretch">
  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-zinc-500 mb-2 font-semibold">You speak</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300 leading-relaxed">So basically I want the card on the left to take up all the rest of the room going across, and then inside it the buttons should be stacked on top of each other with some spacing between them, not crammed together.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4 bg-violet-500/5">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-violet-600 dark:text-violet-400 mb-2 font-semibold">It sends to your agent</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-800 dark:text-zinc-200 leading-relaxed font-mono">Make the left card <code>flex-1</code>. Inside it, set the button container to <code>flex flex-col gap-3</code>.</div>
  </div>
</div>

### Brain-dump to structured notes

<div className="flex items-center gap-2" style={{ marginTop: "-0.25rem", marginBottom: "0.5rem" }}>
  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/notion.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=8648c1790d5324e4950dde9fcae179f4" alt="Notion" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/notion.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/obsidian.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=34d6cf817e38601831d7114bf9a0677c" alt="Obsidian" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/obsidian.png" />

  <img src="https://mintcdn.com/vowen/2NLLQOm5sszam2ni/images/app-icons/notes.png?fit=max&auto=format&n=2NLLQOm5sszam2ni&q=85&s=a1b8915f9594951f37d4ffcdcfb0dac6" alt="Notes" className="w-7 h-7 rounded-md" style={{ margin: 0 }} width="1024" height="1024" data-path="images/app-icons/notes.png" />

  <span className="text-sm text-zinc-500 dark:text-zinc-400 ml-1">Notion, Obsidian, Notes</span>
</div>

**Instructions:** *"Format dictated thoughts as structured notes. Use bold headings for topics and bullet points for items. Group related ideas together. Strip filler words like 'okay', 'so', 'I think'. Keep it scannable, no full paragraphs."*

**How it helps:** Turns a rapid brain-dump into a clean, scannable document you can revisit later. Topics become headings, action items become bullets, and no rewriting is needed.

<div className="my-4 flex flex-col md:flex-row gap-3 items-stretch">
  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-zinc-500 mb-2 font-semibold">You speak</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-700 dark:text-zinc-300 leading-relaxed">Okay so for the launch next month we need to finalize the pricing tiers, talk to legal about the terms update, the marketing team needs the screenshots by Friday, oh and we should test the onboarding flow one more time, also I want to add analytics events to track the new buttons, and let's get a list of beta users to email.</div>
  </div>

  <div className="flex-1 rounded-xl border border-zinc-200 dark:border-zinc-800 p-4 bg-violet-500/5">
    <div className="text-xs uppercase tracking-wide text-violet-600 dark:text-violet-400 mb-2 font-semibold">It writes</div>
    <div className="text-sm text-zinc-800 dark:text-zinc-200 leading-relaxed"><strong>Launch checklist</strong><br />• Finalize pricing tiers<br />• Loop in legal for terms update<br />• Send marketing team screenshots by Friday<br />• Re-test onboarding flow<br />• Add analytics events on new buttons<br />• Compile beta user list for email</div>
  </div>
</div>

## Global Instructions

In addition to per-Tone instructions, you can set **Global Custom Instructions** in **Settings > AI Setup > Custom Instructions**. These apply to every transcription regardless of which Tone is active. When a Tone is active, global instructions and the Tone's instructions are combined.

See [Custom Instructions](/ai-features/custom-instructions) for details.

## Per-Tone Model Selection

Each Tone can use a different:

* **Speech model**: pair higher accuracy with email Tones, lower latency with chat Tones.
* **AI model**: use a higher-quality model for emails, a faster one for chat.

***

<Card title="Set up an AI provider" icon="key" href="/ai-features/ai-setup">
  Tones with AI Enhancement on require a configured Language Model. Connect Groq, OpenAI, Anthropic, Gemini, or any of 10+ supported providers.
</Card>